Star Wars Autographs
Peter Mayhew

On playing Chewbacca: Chewie's walk is "identical to me. When you meet me, you realize how much similarity there is between the two of us." "I'd seen the drawings, and when I had the interview with George (Lucas), I was told the only thing he couldn't do was talk. So he had to communicate either with the eyes or body language. You can do a hell of a lot with eye contact, small head movement, and small movements of the body. I think Chewie just developed. You get on the set, and there is something that happens." "I had no hearing or sight restrictions, so I could see completely and hear everybody, which was essential to get Chewie's reactions. And it helped having to make all the noises of Chewie on the set--other noises were added later, but you had to be in contact with the whole scene. I just reacted as I thought Chewie would." In Empire, when the shield doors are closing with Han and Luke out in the cold: "When we were doing it, I thought about the possibility that you're going to lose someone, and how would an animal express it? A human being might shout, but I was standing by the ladder, so my head went down and my hands go around the ladder. You've got to take your vengeance out on something. That was an emotional moment." Humourous memories of performing Chewbacca: "One of my favorites was the chess game. We were sitting down at the chess board, and the cameras were about to roll. I've never played chess in my life, and there was nothing on the chess board. So I said to one of the technicians, 'What's going to happen?' He said, 'Oh, don't worry about it--they're going to put the chess pieces in afterwards.' So I thought, 'OK, we'll go for it.' But I still had to watch three other things: what Harrison was saying, what Alec and Mark were doing with the laser swords, and Threepio and Artoo." "In Empire, when I had C-3P0 on my back--running around corridors on highly waxed floors in leather shoes, sliding all over the place, sweating like crazy--because that costume was pretty warm--and I had a 50-pound weight on my back." Time spent on the set performing Chewbacca: Unknown Other characters played: None Other actors who portrayed Chewbacca: A bear from Happy Hollow zoo in San Jose, CA; and walruses Source: Star Wars Insider #47

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